The West African nation Shuts Down Schools and Universities as Islamist Militant Restrictions Exacerbates Petrol Emergency
Mali has closed educational facilities and colleges across the nation due to a severe energy crisis triggered by a embargo on petroleum supplies imposed by Islamist insurgents.
The Education Minister announced on national broadcast that all learning centers would be inactive until 9 November, noting that the travel of staff and pupils had been impacted by the imposed limitations.
He asserted that the authorities were “making every effort” to end the emergency so that academic sessions could restart on the tenth of November.
For several weeks, Mali has been facing a petrol crisis, especially in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a blockade by targeting tankers on primary roads.
The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are brought in by land routes from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.
Lengthy waits have been forming around gas pumps in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently grown silent.
The junta-led administration had earlier this month reassured residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has endured.
In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would evacuate Mali amid the intensifying fuel shortage and increasing security concerns.
It explained that the petroleum supply issues had affected the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.
Mali is now led by a army council led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a takeover in recently.
The military government had popular support when it came to authority, committing to address the ongoing instability prompted by a independence uprising in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by extremist groups.
The UN peacekeeping mission and European soldiers had been sent in previously to deal with the growing rebellion.
The international troops have departed since the junta took over, and the military government has hired Russian mercenaries to tackle the instability.
Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has endured and large parts of the north and east of the state remain not under administrative command.
